The Zodiac People: Reuniting the Twelve
by agent000
Summary: Sequel to The Zodiac People. Andromeda shows up all of a sudden, and tells Al that something has happened to her parents, but she doesn't know what. What could possibly have happened to Ed and Winry?
1. Chapter 1

**_By popular demand, here's the sequel to "The Zodiac People". I hope you all like it. It was hard to come up with some sort of plot idea for this one, since I didn't leave the last story open for a sequel, so...we'll see if this is any good, I guess. Hehe. I hope it is._**

**_Disclaimer: Um, why do I even have to say it? For goodness' sake, I don't own FullMetal Alchemist! I wish I did, but I don't, so don't ask! Heh, not like any of you were even wondering, hehe._**

Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary that day, nothing except for a little thunderstorm, that is. Okay, well, it was a big thunderstorm, but the storms were getting worse and worse with each passing year since there were only ten signs left to control the weather.

Al had just tucked his son and daughter into bed and kissed them goodnight and was about to turn off the light so that he could go to bed as well when he heard a loud rapping at the door. Who could be calling at this hour, he wondered.

He opened the door and found an eleven-year-old girl standing there, dripping wet from the rain. "Andromeda! What are you doing here?" She didn't say anything, but merely through her arms around her uncle and started sobbing. Al didn't know what to do or say, so he just stroked her hair for a moment until she was able to calm down somewhat. When she did, he finally was able to pull her into the house and shut the door so that no more rain would get into the house.

"Let's get you into some drier clothes," he said, noticing that her clothes were starting to drip onto the floor. His wife was a bit bigger than Andromeda, but maybe one of her dresses would still fit her somewhat.

He rummaged through her closet, much to the confusion of his wife, and finally pulled something out that looked like it could fit on a young girl. "This should do it," he said. He turned and ran back to the room where he had left Andromeda waiting, and handed the dress to her.

"Now go to the bathroom and change into those clothes as soon as possible, sweetie. We don't want you to catch a cold."

Al's wife came out into the room, tying her bathrobe around her as she came, and asked, "Al, what's going on?"

Al shook his head. "I'm not sure, Berenice. My niece, Andromeda, just showed up all of a sudden without warning."

"Without her parents?" asked Berenice.

"Yeah, I haven't seen any trace of them," said Al, "I wonder where they are. Andromeda has never shown up without her parents beside her before."

"That's odd," said Berenice.

Soon Andromeda came back out into the living room where the other two stood, wearing Berenice's dress, which was really baggy on her, but at least she could wear it. Andromeda looked up at Berenice. "I'm sorry that I had to take your dress."

"Don't worry about it, sweetie. Would you care to tell us what's going on though?"

Andromeda grimaced and looked like she was about to cry again. "It's okay, sweetheart," said Al, reassuringly, "We're here for you, no matter what happens. Now, could you tell us what's going on? I kind of need to know."

"I…I-I don't know exactly what happened," said Andromeda, "I was sleeping at the time, and I woke up to the sound of a lot of screaming coming from my mother and father. The next thing I knew, I was down here. Alone."

"They were screaming?" said Al. Andromeda nodded. "What could have happened? Brother doesn't scream over just anything. Neither does Winry, for that matter."

"I don't know!" Andromeda shouted.

"I understand, Andy," he said, using the nickname he oftentimes used on her, "It's okay. Just go ahead and rest for the night. You can share Cassie's bed if you'd like."

Andromeda wasn't sure if she could rest with all that had just happened, but still nodded her head at Al, and walked off towards the children's room. Berenice turned to her husband. "What do you suppose happened?"

"I don't know," said Al, as he shook his head, "But I'm sure as heck gonna find out."

The morning following was bright and sunny. Al opened his eyes, caught a glimpse of the early morning sun, and smiled. It felt good to feel the sun again. He suddenly sat up straight in his bed. It was sunny! That meant…that could only mean…that there were twelve signs in existence! But…how…?

Al quickly grabbed his coat and ran out the door, not bothering to say "Hello" or "Good morning" to anyway. Apparently, he thought that he could find an answer if he went outdoors.

He wandered along the bank of the river for a few minutes, pondering to himself, trying to figure out what had happened. He casually glanced over at a nearby rock formation and saw someone perched on one of the rocks there.

He ran over to the person to get a better look at them, and his jaw dropped. "B-Brother?" The person turned to him, and Al stepped back for a second. The person did indeed look a lot like his brother, exactly the same, for that matter, but…it wasn't him. It wasn't Scorpio either. He didn't know who this was, but…

"Who are you?" Al shouted.

The person didn't reply, but just turned and continued to look out over the river.

"I asked you a question," Al shouted again, "Who are you?"

The person continued to ignore Al. This made Al kind of mad, so he walked over to the person, and grabbed their shoulders to look into their eyes.

"I'll ask you one more time," said Al, "Who. Are. You?"

At this, the look-alike swung his fist and landed a punch in the middle of Al's cheek. Al staggered back a few steps, and then lunged himself forward and grabbed the person by their shoulders. The individual just glared at him, then clapped his hands together, and slapped them onto the rock he was sitting on.

Blue light flared out of his hands, and then part of the rock came and wrapped around Al, paralyzing him. With that, the look-alike stood up, glared at Al one more time, and then walked off into the distance, still saying nothing.

This was puzzling to Al, to say the least. He could have sworn that even though this person looked like his brother, that he was NOT his brother, yet he had performed a transmutation without a circle, and his alchemy was the same as that which he and his brother used. Whoever that individual was, there was definitely a link between him and Ed.

Struggling against the confines of the rock grip he was in, he finally managed to clap his hands together and perform a transmutation to release himself. Having seen the Gate himself, he could perform transmutations without a circle as well. He just had never been as good at it as Ed had been.

As soon as he was free, he burst out running back to his house. He stepped into the house, slammed the door behind him, and stood panting for a few moments. Berenice shot him a questioning look while Andromeda asked him, "What's the matter, Uncle Al?"

He waited a few more moments to catch his breath before he finally said, "You won't believe what I just saw."

Berenice walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Lay it on me," she said.

**_So...what did you think? Any comments? Suggestions? Anything? I could definitely use help on this story until the plot begins to really take shape. I now accept anonymous reviews too, so even if you don't have an account, you can still review. (If you do have an account, don't be lazy. Sign in, for goodness' sake! It makes it a lot easier to respond to you if I want to ask you a question, or just comment on something you said in your review. Heh.)_**

**_Anyway, hope to see you all around soon for chapter two...whenever that happens. Hehe. Leave me some reviews and some suggestions, and maybe it'll happen sooner. (Asking questions is just as helpful as offering suggestions, by the way. Don't hesitate to ask questions.)_**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey, everyone! Sorry that it took me so long to update this fic, but at least I finally updated! Woohoo! Hope you like this chapter. Feel free to offer suggestions of what you think you'd like to see happen in the story. I don't have everything laid out yet, so suggestions would certainly help. If you don't have suggestions, questions are just as helpful.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist. Funny thing is, this particular fic is seeming less and less like a fanfic and more and more like an original work. Go figure. As long as it has Ed's name in it somewhere though, it's a fanfic. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually make it into an original work, but not at the moment, heh. I guess that if you ever see a book called "The Zodiac People" in a bookstore, you'll be able to brag to your friends that you know where it came from. Heh.**_

"You saw my dad, and he attacked you?" asked a horrified Andromeda. Al shook his head.

"It wasn't Brother. Well, I don't know, maybe it was in a way…but it wasn't him. It's hard to explain."

"Who…or what…do you think it was?" asked Berenice. Al shrugged. He hadn't a clue. "I'm going to call some of your fellow zodiac friends. Maybe they'd have a clue as to what was going on."

Berenice walked out of the room to make the afore mentioned phone call. It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door, and several people stepped into the house: Pisces, Sagittarius, Orion, and Al's own father, Hohenheim. Al sat them all down in the living room and explained the situation to them. Pisces and Orion got a shocked look in their faces, while Sagittarius and Hohenheim retained their indifferent appearance.

"What's the matter?" asked Al to the two that had reacted.

"It's just that…" Pisces began, "This sort of thing has happened once before."

"Yes," continued Orion, "I remember it too. I remember the last time that more than one of your number died at once, the powers that be decided to bring them back prematurely."

"So, Brother is alive then?" Al asked. Pisces and Orion nodded.

"That's the most likely case," said Pisces, "But even the powers that be can't avoid the consequences of bringing somebody back."

"Like what? What kinds of consequences would there be?" asked Al.

Orion cleared his throat, and thought for a minute before he answered. "Well," he said, "Last time this happened, and it was with Scorpio no less, he was actually split into twelve different facets of his personality."

"…?" Al didn't have any words to respond with, but the look on his face said everything anyone needed to understand what he was thinking.

"He means that he was split into twelve different people, each carrying a different part of his personality," said Pisces.

"What?" Al exclaimed. The two just nodded their response. Al slapped his hand over his face, and muttered, "Okay…so how did you get him back to normal back then?" The two hung their heads.

"Well, unfortunately, we don't remember that."

Orion looked up and directed his gaze at Al. "Just be careful. We know that your brother was a very good person, but even he had his own dark sides. Some of these beings that are part of your brother will be quite dangerous."

Al hung his head. "Poor Brother." He paused. "I wonder what happened to Winry then." The others in the room shook their heads. They hadn't a clue.

The silence was interrupted by the shattering of glass from one of the windows. Berenice came rushing into the room to see what the commotion was. Everyone looked on in stunned silence, trying to decipher what was going on, though they didn't have long to find out, as the Ed imposter…or rather, the part of Ed that Al had met before, came rampaging into the room.

Al's heart was already beating fast, but it felt like it was about to burst from fright when he saw his little girl, Cassie, run out into the room with her arms open wide calling for her "Uncle Ed" to hold her. Al's legs were paralyzed from his fear. He couldn't let this being harm his daughter, yet he didn't want to harm his brother in the process of protecting her. He didn't have a clue what to do, and therefore, wasn't able to move.

The individual who was a part of Ed grinned menacingly, and balled his hand into a fist. No one was quite sure whether he was planning on punching the little girl, or if he was going to outright kill her. Something had to be done about this.

Berenice stepped into the center of the room. "Ed," she called. That got the being's attention, and he looked at her. She smiled her own mischievous smile, and then grabbed her comb and ran it a few times through her hair. "Don't touch my daughter or you'll have to deal with the wrath of my comb."

Ed looked almost like he wanted to laugh at that comment, like he wasn't taking her seriously. The look on Al's face told everyone that he knew her comment was quite serious. Berenice took her comb, reached her hand around the front of her body, and then swung it at Ed like it was a boomerang.

Ed's eyes opened wide as he suddenly realized, too late, what was going on. The comb struck him on the forehead, and sparks flew out of it, completely engulfing and paralyzing him in its power. This lasted for several minutes until the energy finally died down and Ed collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Silence filled the room for several minutes, until Sagittarius finally broke the silence in her throw-all-caution-to-the-winded way. "Uh, what the heck was that?"

All eyes turned to her, and Al spoke. "Why, Sagittarius, haven't you ever heard about Coma Berenices?"

"Coma Berenices? Yeah, I've heard of her," said Sagittarius, "She's one of the constellations, right?"

"Right," answered Al, "And this is she." He gestured towards his wife. Sagittarius gasped. Somehow, it just hadn't clicked with her until that moment. "Her hair has some sort of godlike powers. I don't quite understand it myself, but it's a gift she has." Sagittarius nodded in silence. She didn't quite understand, but she understood that she didn't understand, so she understood…well, never mind.

"So then, Cancer," Orion interjected, "Your children are…"

"Cassiopeia and Perseus." Al answered. "Yes, with both parents being children of the stars, it was pretty likely that our children would be too."

"Wow," Sagittarius mused as she leaned back into the couch. She wasn't normally at a loss for words, she was Sagittarius after all, but she was at a loss right then. She couldn't get the scene she had just seen out of her mind.

Everyone was silent for several moments as they pondered what their next move should be. That question was answered when little Cassie suddenly asked, "Daddy, why is Uncle Ed sleeping on the floor?" Oh, right. They needed to do something about him before he woke up, but what?

"We could always lock him up in the hallway closet for the time being," said Berenice answering the silent question. "That would give us a small amount of time to think. We would just have to board up his hands so that he couldn't use alchemy."

"Right," said Al, rubbing his head in thought. He hated the thought of locking his brother in the closet, but this being wasn't his brother, after all. Sure it was a part of him, but it wasn't him. He knew that he needed to protect this being, or he'd never get his brother back, but this particular being still wasn't his brother. "Okay," he finally consented, "Let's lock him in the closet."

With the help of all those in the house, they finally managed to get Ed's hands bound so he couldn't perform alchemy, and locked him up in the closet. Berenice had even taken the extra precaution of wrapping his whole body up in duck tape, just in case he should wake up. They didn't need him trying to kick the door down.

Al stepped back and wiped his brow. "I hope you forgive me for this, Brother, when you come to, if you even remember any of this when you are finally whole again, that is."

Berenice shut the closet door and locked it, and Al, with a shrug, turned and walked back to the living room. He had a lot on his mind, a lot of questions, and he was determined to get some answers.

_**Did you like that chapter? Hope so. Please review and let me know what you think.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**_Hey, an update! Woohoo! Hehehe...this chapter shows a little bit of Berenice's less desirable side, since apparently, everyone wanted to see that, but I haven't fully exploited it yet. Be patient, I'm sure it'll happen sometime in the story, but I don't know when. My stories write themselves, after all, I'm just the scribe. Heh._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own...oh, why do I always say this? You know that I don't own! Huh, what does that mean, anyway? Um, I forgot what I don't own, but I think that you all know. Just remember that I don't own it, okay?_**

Al placed his head in his hands and sighed. How could he handle this? He didn't like having to restrain his brother…okay, part of his brother…though he knew it was necessary because this part of him had no restraint. Apparently, the good sides of Ed had always kept his bad sides in check. He wondered if he would run into any other sides of his brother soon.

He continued to sit in the same position he was in for several minutes, rocking back and forth in worry. His brother was a water sign too, wasn't he? Wouldn't that bad side of him just be able to convert to his elemental form and escape? Then what would happen to his wife and children? Well, maybe he didn't have to worry about his wife, but he did his children. That Ed apparently had no qualms about killing someone that the complete being had loved, and that scared him.

Suddenly, Al felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and looked into the face of Pisces. "I felt you worrying about your brother, so I thought that I'd come and try to help console you a bit."

Al offered a light smile, and then turned again and put his head back in his hands. "I'm not sure if anyone can make me stop worrying, but thanks for thinking about me."

Pisces sat down on the rock beside Al, and leaned over to him. "You don't need to worry about him converting to his native element. He can't do that unless he's whole."

Al jerked his head up. Had she read his thoughts? Oh…right, she had. She was psychic, wasn't she? "So…" he began, "There's something he can't do being separated like this?"

"There are a lot of things he can't do being separated like this," Pisces stated. "For instance, did you notice that that part of your brother never uttered a word, or even a scream of protest about being put in your closet?" Al nodded. He'd thought that odd. "Well, it's simply that he can't. None of the other parts of him can speak either. Physically, they're capable, but mentally and emotionally, they are not. It requires a whole person to be able to speak, due to the fact that it usually requires several different sides of a person to participate at once in order to communicate."

"It does, doesn't it?" Al mused. He had never really thought about it before, but it made sense. One had to pull from several different resources in order to communicate with another, and this piece of Ed could not do that, since he was only one of the sides. None of the others would be able to do it either, for the same reason.

Al stood up and dusted his pants off. "So, have you found out how to reunite my brother yet?"

Pisces shook her head. "No, but we're trying to find out. I wish that we remembered, but we lose some of our memories each time we're reincarnated, so…"

"I understand," Al said, putting up his hand. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea what happened to Winry, would you? She was part of Scorpio, after all."

Pisces shook her head. "I'm sorry, I have no clue. This has never happened before that I know of. I'm not sure what the powers that be have done to her."

Al sighed. "I understand, I was just checking. Thanks for all your help thus far." He turned and walked away, head down, staring at the ground. Pisces looked longingly after him for a moment, but decided against running after him. He apparently needed some time alone.

Al continued to walk in silence for some time. He hadn't brought along a watch, so he didn't have any idea how long he'd been walking. All he knew was that when he finally looked up, he was no longer by the river, but was now in the woods. He must've been walking a long time to have done that.

Well, he shrugged, there was only one thing to do, and that was to get out of here before it got dark and people started worrying. He looked around, but saw nothing familiar. Great. This was just great. How was he supposed to find his way out of here? He knew that he could just do a one-eighty and walk back in the direction he came, but he had no way of knowing whether he had walked a straight line or not, and he knew that he most likely had not.

All the same, he wasn't about to just stay here and let night overtake him without a fight. He took a deep breath and began walking in some random direction, hoping that he would find something familiar soon. He knew these woods pretty well, except for the part he was in of course, so he figured that he should come to something familiar soon.

His eyes were busy scanning the whole area for familiar sights that he didn't even notice the vines covering the path and the pit in front of him until it was too late to do anything about it. His ankle caught on one of the vines, and he fell headlong into the pit.

He sat up after a moment, still in a daze, and cursed himself for not watching where he was going. He began to frantically feel around for some vines or footholds, anything that would get him out of this pit, but to no avail. This pit was just too deep, and the sides were too soft. He wouldn't be able to get out of here without help.

With desperation, he began crying out for someone to come and help him. The chances of someone actually hearing him all the way out here were kind of unlikely, but he had to try, just the same. The thought of his wife and children standing at home, worrying about him was too much for him. A tear ran down his face, and he called louder.

His voice began to grow hoarse. No one seemed to be responding to his plea. It was no use. He sank down to his knees and sobbed. Why did he have to get himself into this mess, especially right now, of all times?

Just then, he heard some footsteps overhead. With renewed energy, he called out to whoever was above ground to please help him. Whoever it was that was up there didn't respond back, but Al continued to call to the individual anyway.

Finally, a vine appeared over the side of the pit, and Al grabbed it, a little over-zealously, and began to ascend it to the top of the pit. At last, his head poked out above the pit, and he reached for something to grab onto, and found that whoever had helped him suddenly grabbed a hold of his hand and was gently pulling him upwards.

With one last tug, Al was finally out of the pit, and was lying on his back in the foliage, gasping for breath. He closed his eyes for a second as he regained his energy, and then finally opened them again to see who his benefactor was so that he could properly thank him. He hoped that whoever it was hadn't run off yet.

Al soon spotted him standing just a few feet away, but when he saw him, his jaw dropped. It was Ed…or at least, another part of Ed. He hoped it was another part at least. Al stared at him in shock for several moments, and Ed reacted by returning him a smile. Yes, this was definitely a different one. That other one would never have smiled, unless he was plotting something evil.

"B-Brother?" Al asked, hesitantly. The side of Ed smiled even wider, and then came over and offered a hand to help Al up, which Al graciously accepted. "Th-Thanks," Al said, "And thank you so much for getting me out of that pit." Ed just smiled and shook his head. Well, thought Al, at least he seems to understand what I'm saying, even if he can't respond.

"Why don't we go home now, Brother?" Al suggested. Ed nodded, so the two made their way out of the woods, Ed leading the way, since he apparently knew where they were the whole time, and ran back to the house.

When they arrived, little Cassie was outside, playing with her brother. She took one look at Ed, screamed, and got up to run away. Ed responded by dropping to his knees and extending his arms, as if beckoning her to come back, and not be afraid. She hesitated for a few moments, looking between him and her father. Al nodded to her, trying to indicate that it was okay to approach him, so Cassie finally got her courage back and ran up to Ed, who promptly threw his arms around her. Al smiled at such a sweet sight, and turned to walk into the house.

As he was about to enter the house, he suddenly turned around and spoke to Ed. "Brother," he said, "We're trying to do everything we possibly can to get you put back together. Until then, I have to ask that you make sure that we always know where you are, okay? We can't afford to lose track of you." Ed nodded his response, so Al, satisfied, went into the house. He knew that he had nothing to fear from this side of his brother.

Al made his way into the kitchen, and was about to plop down into a chair, when Berenice spotted his dirty clothes. "Oh my gosh, Al! What have you been up to? Don't sit in that chair, go change your clothes! Oh, for goodness' sakes, Al, here, let me help you."

The woman, not even giving poor Al a chance to speak up for himself rushed him off to their bedroom and grabbed some new clothes, and then pulled him in the direction of the bathroom to wash him up.

"Sweetie," he said, a little uneasily, "I can take a bath by myself, you know. I've known how to do that since I was a child."

Berenice just gave him a dirty scowl for that comment, and then demanded that he get into the bath. He knew better than to argue with her when she got that look. He shivered at the memory of what had happened to him the last time he had crossed her. Angering a woman with a power like hers wasn't fun.

Before long, Berenice had Al cleaned up to her liking, and he came out to the kitchen and was finally allowed to sit in his beloved chair. Well, the chair wasn't really that special, it was just the bit about being allowed to sit in it that was. Yep, Berenice was one tough cookie when she got her mind made up about something.

Berenice came marching out into the kitchen. "Now, Al, how did you get your clothes so dirty?" She fixed him with a steely glare, and Al gulped. He knew that she wasn't going to clobber him for something like this, but still…that glare…

Finally, he managed to spew the whole story out to her. She seemed to understand, but she was still a bit irritated about the clothes. Oh well, you couldn't win them all, could you?

"So, where is this other Ed right now?"

"He's outside with Cassie and Perseus," he said.

"He's WHERE?"

Al put up his hands in self defense. "Relax, Berenice, he won't hurt them. I already told you, he's a gentle side of my brother. These different sides apparently can't do anything but be the one side that they are, so he really has no choice but to be gentle."

Berenice sighed. Apparently, she understood that, though she still didn't like the idea. Perhaps she just wanted to pick a fight of some sort. Al didn't know. He didn't particularly care, actually, just so long as she didn't decide to hurt him.

Finally, Berenice spoke again. "Well, I suppose to avoid confusion from now on, we'd better give different names to all the different Eds, since there are apparently going to be twelve of them. Let's call the first one…Mad Ed, for obvious reasons. After all, he's angry, and he's crazy, so the word works both ways."

"Right," said Al, scratching his head, "That'll work. Then this new one would be Gentle Ed."

"Works for me," said Berenice, pushing herself up from the table. "Dinner's almost finished. Would you care to invite our guests, including your gentle brother, to come inside?"

"Sure," said Al, as he stood up, "But what about Mad Ed? He needs to be taken care of too, or we won't be able to restore my brother to his normal state."

"We'll make sure he gets the care he needs later," said Berenice with a wave of her hand, "But we don't need to let him spoil dinner, now do we?" Al shook his head, and walked out the door. That woman was scary sometimes.

**_Heh heh heh...Scary Berenice, hmmm...Anyway, hope that you liked the chapter. Please leave me a review if you want me to update soon, heh heh heh. Hope to see you soon!_**


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